Business advice doled out at Long Chamber

SCORE President Marjorie Young speaks at the recent Long County Chamber of Commerce breakfast.

Marjorie Young, president of the local Service Corporation of Ready Executives chapter, spoke last week to the Long County Chamber of Commerce at its quarterly breakfast. Young told the group that SCORE is a mentoring service that provides many different services for business owners. She said these services range from helping a new business get off the ground to providing an established business with ways to market itself better. Young said she knows firsthand how SCORE can assist an organization, having used its services herself in 1989 when a family business was in dire straits because of a recession.“The mentor who helped me was available for just about anything. I could call him at any hour of the day and ask him any question … he was there for me to always give me an unbiased opinion,” Young said.She said most businesses don’t know about SCORE and its resources are not tapped like they ought to be. She said that the mentors who work with SCORE are industry specific, and there is a representative available in just about all fields. Young said that there are more than 13,000 mentors nationally, with 20 in the Long County area.Young said that 60 percent of the SCORE mentors are retired business owners, and the other 40 percent own a business. In 2012, SCORE mentored more than 70,000 businesses, and those organizations created more than $19 billion in revenue. Young also encouraged all chamber members to attend a Speed Mentoring Conference on April 4 in Savannah. Cost of the conference is $19.95, and there will be several different stations where business owners can get advice in specific areas of expertise. She also said that there will be a State of Small Business conference May 23 at the Savannah Mall. More information on SCORE is at www.SCORE.org, and people can get information on the conferences by calling 912-652-4335.Also at the meeting, chamber member Elise Stafford told the group that an adult day-care service is being offered at Coastal Manor Long Term Care Facility, and that the new service would create several jobs for Long County. Chamber member Don Melton told the group that the next event will be May 16 when Long County Clerk of Court Sherry Long and attorney and Long County State Court Judge Jeffery Arnold will host the second annual Law Day at 5:30 p.m. at the courthouse. The public is invited.